Janet Daley was born in America where she began her political life on the Left as an undergraduate at Berkeley. She moved to Britain (and to the Right) in 1965 where she spent nearly twenty years in academic life before becoming a political commentator: all factors that inform her writing on British and American policy and politicians.

Stephen Byers says what the Tories should be saying

When Alan Milburn first returned to a taskforce role with the Brown government, I wrote that his rehabilitation could potentially mean big trouble for the Conservatives. Mr Milburn believed in the kind of radical reforms to the public services (most notably the NHS) that David Cameron should have had the nerve to advocate. If Labour were to embrace the Milburn programme before the next election, I thought, it could well appear more progressive than the Tories who would be left looking backward-looking and cowardly. Well so far, Mr Miliburn does not seem to have had his way with the Brownite dogma of central control over health and education but his political soulmate, Stephen Byers has put himself on the record as supporting an increase in the personal tax allowance of £1520. To pay for this, he wants Gordon Brown to reverse the cut in VAT.

This step would, at a stroke, take 1.7 million low paid workers out of income tax altogether, and reduce the tax paid by almost all working families. Mr Byers clearly recognises that allowing people to keep more of their earnings is a far more just and effective way to deal with hardship than reducing what is in effect a tax on spending. So will Gordon Brown have the ideological flexibility to recognise a valuable (and potentially very popular) policy when he sees one? And will George Osborne and David Cameron have the courage of what should be their own convictions and refuse to allow Labour politicians to outflank them on the Right? Watch this space.